This application claims priority to Canadian Patent Application No. 2,368,870, filed on Jan. 22, 2002, the complete disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to a process for making pompon-like articles comprising a plurality of distinct fibrous materials and to said articles made by said process for use as toys, particularly cat toys.
Canadian Patent No. 2,111,316-Veloce, Frank, issued Sep. 23, 1997, describes a pompon cat toy comprising a mass of soft fibrous material, such as wool or acrylics, having a plurality of pieces of flexible materials, such as aluminum foil, acetate paper, polyethylene or polypropylene sheet interspersed within the mass. The flexible material crumbles or rustles when touched by a cat.
The aforesaid pompons are essentially spherical in shape and do not comprise pluralities of different fibers which have been treated to effect different physical appearances of the fibers within the resultant product.
In one aspect the invention provides a process of making a multifibrous article comprising forming a bundle of a desired length comprising
a first plurality of fibers of a first flexible material;
a second plurality of fibers of a second flexible material;
wherein said first plurality of fibers and said second plurality of fibers are selectively interspersed within said bundle as desired and are compressibly retained at a position intermittent of said length; and
heat treating said bundle at an effective temperature for an effective period of time to effect a desired selective change in physical property characteristics selected from the group consisting of shrinking, singeing and melting of said fibers.
Preferably, the process as hereinabove defined further comprises at least one or more pluralities of fibers of a third or more flexible material.
Preferably, the process as hereinabove defined comprises a process wherein said flexible materials are selected from the group consisting of a natural and synthetic material.
The natural material is preferably selected from a wool and cotton; and the synthetic material is selected from a polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester, nylon, acrylic ester and polyamide.
A process as hereinabove defined may further comprise said bundle comprising a non-fibrous flexible material, such as, for example, a plastics material or aluminum in the form of a plurality of sheets.
The fibers are preferably compressibly retained by a retaining member selected from the group consisting of a stretched elastic material, such as a nylons, and metal ring.
Preferably, a process as hereinabove defined has an effective temperature selected from 40xc2x0-200xc2x0 C., preferably, 60xc2x0-100xc2x0 C., and an effective period of time selected from 10-100 seconds.
Preferably, the process as hereinabove defined comprises agitating said bundle at said effective temperature and effective period of time in a hot air tumble dryer.
The first plurality of fibers may be selectively partially shrunk, singed or melted relative to said second plurality of fibers.
The fibers of at least said first plurality may be in the form of a plurality of mesh or net members layered one member upon another. Thus, the roll or reel of fibers may be in the form of a rolled net or mesh which roll is individually unwound and fed in association with a suitable plurality of other nets from distinct rolls in desired arrangement of materials, colors and the like as a multilayer feed to the conical funnel for suitable compression, tying, cutting to length and heat treatment process steps. A typical number of mesh layers is selected from 10-20, preferably 12-16 to give a desired 5 cm diameter product article. The fibers are positioned prior to compression to provide the desired physical appearance and properties in the resultant product.
In a further aspect, the invention provides a multifibrous article as made by a process as hereinabove defined.
Preferably, the article is non-spherical in shape. Further, one or more of the plurality of fibers may be luminescent as to glow in the dark, and may also be of selected desired distinct colors.